Ukraine received a peace plan from the United States this Wednesday that includes the cession of territories controlled by Russia and the reduction of the Ukrainian army, a Ukrainian official said today.
The proposal includes “the recognition of [anexação da] Crimea and other regions taken by Russia” and “the reduction of the army to 400,000 people”, the Ukrainian official, who asked not to be identified, told the France-Presse news agency. “We are receiving signals that we have to accept this plan”, indicated the same source.
The information comes hours after the agency Reutersdo “Financial Times” and the North American website Axios report a proposal agreed between the US and Russia on the same terms. Axios – which had already reported that there were negotiations between Moscow and Washington – talks about a plan with 28 points, which would also include a limitation of military assistance provided to Kiev by the United States and a restriction on the categories of weaponry that could be used.
The areas that Ukraine still controls in the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk (also known as Donbas and where it still controls around 14.5% of the territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War) would become a demilitarized zone. In Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the other two provinces with fighting on the ground, the front lines would be frozen, with Russia returning some territory. Ukraine will not have been heard to implement this proposal, says a government source in the country.
Advances and setbacks between Washington and Kiev
On October 17, Zelensky met at the White House for the second time with Trump and was questioned by journalists about the possibility of ceding territories to end the war and argued on that occasion that to stop the conflict and “go to peace negotiations urgently, through the diplomatic path” it is necessary to “not give Putin any more”.
The “Financial Times” newspaper reported, at the same time, that the meeting between Trump and Zelensky was marked by an argument with shouting, insults and an alleged threat made by the American leader that Putin “would destroy” Ukraine if the Ukrainian leader did not accept Russian terms for ending the conflict.
A Ukrainian official then said that Trump pressured Zelensky to accept the cession of the eastern region of Donbass to Russia during that meeting at the White House.
In September, Trump even stated that “Ukraine, with the support of the European Union”, was “in a position to fight and reconquer all of its territory back to its original form”. On October 22nd it was The US ruled out a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary.
The American proposal arrives on the same day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Turkey to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a visit aimed at relaunching peace talks with Moscow, which are currently at a standstill.